Vow of Poverty and Spellbooks

[LadyIslay]

I picked up Book of Exalted Deeds on Friday, and while I was disapointed at the length of the book, I think I'm going to have a great deal of fun putting its contents to work.

One of the features is the feat "Vow of Poverty". In exchange for giving up material possessions and taking this feat, a character gains a variety of benefits that they would normally aquire from magical items.

The feat states that "you may not ownor use any material possessions with the followin exceptions: You may carry and use ordinary (neither maical nor masterwork) simple weapons... You may wear simple clothes ... with no magical properties. You may carry enought food to sustain you for one day in a simple (nonmagic) sack or bag. You may carry and use a spell component pouch."

Unfortunitly, there is no mention of a SPELLBOOK. Spellbooks have an inherent value. Can a character that has sworn a Vow of Poverty carry and use a spellbook? Obviously they wouldn't be able to add spells to it beyond those that they learn through research (gained freely at each level), but should they be permitted to carry a book of spells?

 

[Wycen]

This seems to be a sticky wicket. I believe the answer is no you can't have a spellbook. Your idea about having your first level spellbook and never gaining more may suffice in some games.

I would suggest for a wizard that Spell Mastery would be most important if taking the Vow of poverty.

But mostly a sorcerer is better off than a wizard taking Vow of Poverty.

 

[Norfleet]

Well, in 2E, it was stated that a wizard's "spellbook" could take many different forms, not just the expected "dictionary-sized library book". It's quite possible, therefore, that a wizard's "spellbook" might not even be a spellbook at all: Instead, the wizard might tattoo the spellbook onto himself! That would neatly kill the problem of the wizard losing his spellbook, as well as explaining why wizards wear robes: Because robes are easily donned and doffed, enabling the wizard to study his "spellbook" tattoos.

And if the wizard's "spellbook" is, in fact, a set of tattoos on his own body, he can't very well give that away or lose it.

 

[gfunk]

Though I'm not sure if a spellbook has intrinsic value, the cost of adding spells to it would most certainly violate the vow of poverty. It would be the same as owning an ancestral relic.

 

[Tellerve]

Yeah, I think a wizard is certainly one that won't fit well with the Vow of Poverty. Because of their spellbook and the need to fill it up with new spells at a substantial cost they'd be violating that vow a good amount.

So as Wycen said, go sorcerer and get Eschew Materials, assuming your DM doesn't automatically give you that feat.

Tellerve

 

[gfunk]

So as Wycen said, go sorcerer and get Eschew Materials, assuming your DM doesn't automatically give you that feat.

You don't need to take Eschew Materials b/c the VoP feat specifically says that a spell component pouch is allowed. For material components that cost more than 1 gp, you can use the variant rule in the BoED that says 1 XP can be spent per 5 gp value.

 

[Tellerve]

True, true...but I still like Eschew materials

Tellerve

 

[Ferret]

He he I can imagin a stark naked mage with some pants saying "Now where did I put Fireball?"

What about familiars? If you already had one?

 

[FrankTrollman]

The Vow of Poverty does not prevent you from spending money - it prevents you from keeping money.

Similarly, if the party wants to pay 300 gold pieces each for passage by ship - the character can gather such funds and pay for the ride without violating anything.

The vow prevents you from storing things of great value (except the spell component pouch - which can include any and all spell components, even the costly ones because it is a speciifc exception). The Spellbook does not have a named value - it's just very expensive filling it.

The character with the vow of poverty is not prevented from doing so. Which is fortunate - as the character would be pretty much screwed if for some reason he was.

-Frank

 

[Olive]

The Vow of Poverty does not prevent you from spending money - it prevents you from keeping money.

Sure, but it also prevents you from keeping posessions. Givent hat the base price of an unfilled spell book is 15gp, and the BoED gives very specific exceptions to what can or cannot be used which don't include a spellbook, you simpley can't be a wizard with this feat.

Unless you take it late and take a LOT of spell mastery feats.

As far as expensive components goes, the phrasing on page 30 of the BoED suggests that expensive components aren't covered by the exception, which makes sense given the definition of the pouch as not including 'those components which have a specific cost' (PHB p130).

It's a great feat for monks, and not super good for anyone else. Cool RPing potential tho as long as a character is playable with it. And unfortunately a wizard isn't.